Unlocking the Power of Internet Marketing

Introduction

Internet marketing can be identified as the method of promoting the goods and services among the users of the internet using social media, banner ads over particular websites, app creation and email. It is using internet marketing; the amount and quality of sales lead to the products and services that can be escalated. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) can be considered as different activities that comprise of the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social Media Marketing (SMM) along with different search engine associated functions. SEM is considered to be the marketing method through which more visibility can be attained in the context of search engines using free traffic and paid traffic (Brennan, Willetts & Vos, 2008). SEM tends to comprise the Search Engine Optimisation, whose main task has been to adjust or rewrite the content of the website along with the architecture of the site so that higher page rankings can be obtained in search engine result pages. To attain the best result, it is significant for the organic SEO and paid SEO to possess shared goals, assess the data for ascertaining the future strategy or locating right kind of tools to attain traffic for the chosen keywords in both national as well as local search results (Pagani & Otto, 2013).

Introduction of the report

The chief objective of this report has been to demonstrate how search engine marketing has been used by businesses as part of digital marketing strategies. The study shall discuss in more detail regarding the ways in which search engine marketing proves to be significant in digital world. It will try to comprehend the digital landscape and explain the manner in which it tends to be different from that of traditional marketing management. This report would evaluate the tools and techniques along with technology utilised in the changing digital marketing environment along with drivers of consumers’ online behaviour. It will also try to assess the evolving role of digital marketing in the organisation. The report shall also try to plan, implement and control a digital marketing campaign making use of the frameworks, methods in the industry, with the help of the simulation software and shall also assess the effectiveness of the campaign.

Search Engine Marketing Relation with Digital marketing

SEO can be identified as the method of enhancing visibility as well as enhancing the status of a website in the search engine result page. The most well-known fact has been that the high ranked website over the SERP arises quickly in the context of search result lists, and thus, it is capable of attaining more traffic basically from the search engine users. The traffic visiting the page can be easily changed to customers. SEO might be attained through organic SEO or paid SEO (Mahboubian, 2010). When the organic SEO is taken into consideration, it is noted that the website owner arbitrates to attain a good position for the website in the search result without making use of any paid means to attain it. Using paid SEO, the website owner is capable of purchasing advertising space in the search engine results so that they can easily attain top position for the website in the context of search results and not for attaining more traffic. To comprehend SEO, it becomes quite significant to comprehend how the search engine tends to work. It comprises of four different activities such as Web Crawling where the crawlers would be looking for text as well as hyperlinks that revolves from one webpage to another web page. SEM can be identified as the method of marketing through which more visibility in the context of search engines can be attained through free traffic ore using paid traffic (Washington, 2007). It is the SEO tools that shall assist the Search Engine marketing through enhancement of the landing pages through technical auditing of the web pages on a website. Codes and schemes can be improved; poor quality links can be removed and thus focus upon the areas of potential improvement that shall assist in improving the level of performance, attain more traffic along with conversions made towards the site.

One of the most significant, valuable, and high position activities can be considered as keyword analysis. It demands understanding regarding the intention of the user’s query. For conducting the keyword analysis, it becomes significant to be aware of the keyword research SEO tools. Keyword analysis can be done by determining the famous keywords matching the content of the website according to its importance and the conversion rate. It then tries to create a website with the assistance of the targeted keyword (Washington, 2007).

Importance of SEM

One most significant reason for making use of the SEM by marketing agency the client has been for making money. It is noted that SEM tends to offer both brands as well as agencies with the scope to make money from the marketing campaigns. Since money is considered to be one of the main objectives of marketing campaigns, many other types of conversions need to be made such as news subscribers, contest entries, newsletter signups that the marketer might be trying to attain. SEM can be identified as one of the significant conversion drivers for marketing campaigns. The main reason behind it has been that paid ads are associated with conversion-focused landing pages that shall rotate the web traffic using sales funnel (Washington, 2007).

The other main importance of SEM has been that it tends to endorse brand awareness. For example, Google has stated that search ads would escalate the level of brand awareness to a great extent (Unibg, 2019). It has also been demonstrated that SEM is one of the main tools that help in attaining website visits and for attaining maximum conversions in any budgets. The local marketing tends to link regional businesses with that of the surrounding areas that it tends to serve. When people tend to look for local business services online, then it becomes the duty of the local marketers to link the queries with that of the ads in search engines (Gupta, Agrawal & Gupta, 2016). The figure presented below helps in comprehending the linkage properly.

The business houses demand consistent web traffic for maintaining the level of visibility and also for sales. They also demand the capability to plan, budget and forecast. The worst part has been that both spikes as well as drops in the context of business is quite prevalent and also unexplained. To combat the chaos, there is a need for search ads that shall help in attaining consistent traffic for some types of keywords. It might as well assist the companies in monitoring the rate of traffic that reaches the site at any point in time.

Ways in Which Search Engine Works

Before the birth of the internet and search engines, how human searchers would communicate with the text would be assessed. It was a user that was considered as the main component of the method, thereby slowly removing the librarian intermediary basically in the conventional information retrieval method. It is the search engines that tend to offer internet users with an easy manner to locate the general information over the internet. It is the search engines that assist the users in attaining the information when the user tends to type for the query in the search text box, after which the user is likely to click on the search button. The search engine is praised a lot because of its capability to properly search for different information over different topics. According to most of the users, it is noted that the search engines attain information that is not at all relevant and tends to be the opposite of what the user is looking for. Many search engines have their algorithms, while some tend to combine or share with others. Hence, this tends to demonstrate the significance of the strategy that the website owners need to make so that they can properly plan how the visitors would be capable of searching for a particular website. Understanding how the results are ranked tends to be significant in comprehending what needs to be done for ensuring top rankings on the website. Most of the researchers have researched understanding the different ranking factors and how they are implemented.

Real word example of Google making use of Search Engine Marketing

Nonetheless, it can be revealed that proper knowledge related to ranking algorithms are found to be trade secrets. For example, till date the attempts made have lead to mere guesses, assessments and models of how Google’s algorithm evaluates ranking elements while comprehending the rankings of websites over the result pages. It is always tempting to develop different websites that comprises of similar content and thus targeting different customer profile. This is what has been done at Google. Since many years large number of duplicate sites has been created according o different campaigns. Duplicate contents prove to be confusing for users and also for search engines. After search audit, the company decided to overhaul its marketing website for Google Retail. It was noted that by clearing old websites and paying attention towards one great website has increased the site’s call-to-action click through rate. It has also raised organic traffic by near about 64%. Search engine result ranking tends to be ascertained by how a web page would satisfy some of the criteria which are identified as ranking algorithms. The search engines tend to make use of it to return with appropriate queries to the searcher query. They are further found to rank or position the results in an adequate manner. It becomes significant for the search engines because relevant rankings make them well known among the searchers. It assists in escalating advertising revenues. It is the ranking algorithms that tends to be impacted by two main factors such as query factors that has been associated with that of the content of the web page while the other one has been independent query factors that have been mainly dependent upon the information attained from the web browsers that offer access to some other web page locations (Gupta, Agrawal & Gupta, 2016).

Ways in which email generate traffic for campaign

There are different methods to escalate the rate of traffic for campaign through email. It is important to initiate with a healthy subscriber list and thus escalate website traffic. The company needs to keep the landing pages in sync with that of the email campaign. The landing page needs to be relevant thereby conveying more information regarding the offer that has been highlighted in the email. The audience needs to receive emails with the information that would bring interest in them. After that the company would send subscriber the email as per the preferences that were chosen when they signed up. It is important to check the email as well as website metrics. In case the company wants to improve the website visibility, then it needs to integrate the social media marketing with the email campaigns.

Measuring the Effectiveness of SEM

Measurement of the effectiveness of the search engine tends to be dependent upon the types of objectives that the companies possess. In case the company wants to escalate the number of visitors towards the site, the company tends to determine if SEM campaigns are working well through comparing of web traffic statistics before and after implementing the search engine marketing. For search engine marketing, it is to be identified that efforts need to be made before observing any boost in the rate of traffic. Distinct factors prevail before hoping to rank for and without overdoing it. Though the PPC ads can run faster, it might take a certain time for them to appear when compared to some other ads.

Along with the measurement of the website traffic, it is also important to track the rate of conversions. It can be revealed that while assessing the success of SEM marketing, it not only implies escalating the rate of traffic towards the website of the company but also making the traffic lead to increased sales. Hence, the objective becomes to locate ways to raise the number of visitors along with conversion rates. This helps in comprehending exactly the different efforts needed to make the search engine marketing program a successful one (Paraskevas, 2018).

Simbound

In this simbound game, the name of the company that has been decided has been ‘Richards’s telecommunication’. Search Engine Marketing can be considered as an umbrella term, thereby comprising of Internet marketing methods that help in stimulating the website visibility in the context of Search Engine Results pages. The different methods might comprise the pay per click, search engine optimization, digital asset optimization, contextual advertising and so on. With the assistance of the Simbound, it can be stated that we got an opportunity to participate in different activities that have been linked with that of PPC marketing as thus assess the search rankings of their pages. As we got an opportunity to learn e-marketing with the help of marketing simulation, then it is noted that it leads to exceptional experiences in the online advertising mediums. Because learning takes place in the simulated environment, there are no chances of financial loss or brand damages. When an inbound simulation game is used, we are capable of learning methods of initiating and tracking the online marketing campaign in the context of a highly reliable environment. The user interface tends to be the same as that of the systems that online marketing professionals tend to make use of. With this simulation game we were capable of assessing the progress of SEO to have the website ranked quite higher for the keywords that are considered to be important for the business. The company would be capable of consulting distinct data points to making the best decisions over keywords that the company wants to optimize for (Barlas, 2004). The prevailing resources are limited by nature and thus in each round, we were required to select a small group of keywords that it wants to optimize for and track them.

Optimal product mix: we would be selling tablets online and only the top brands would be sold here in order to beat the level of competition.

Landing page optimisation: in case of tablet, we made use of different keywords so that the user is capable of locating it as soon as possible. Ten different phrases or keywords were used for the landing page.

The image demonstrated below helps in comprehending how we were capable of organising campaigns in Simbound.

It is significant to comprehend the fact that each search engine possesses a distinct campaign structure. Nonetheless, we grouped the keywords into ad groups that possess closely associated themes. The figure below helps in comprehending how the keyword results were demonstrated (Bartlett, 2015).

Method of New PPC Campaign

We tried to locate the best search key phrases that the clients would make use of in their searches. It is also significant to choose the markets that would assist in geo-targeting with the ads, which can be regions, communities or cities. We wrote Ads that shall offer searchers with the incentive to visit the website to track and thus optimize the performance as well as the cost of the particular Ad. We had the budget of $15000 and thus tried to make optimum use of it in order to attract traffic and thus increase profits (Smith, 2004).

Launching of the Campaign

Soon after the keyword research has been completed, We wrote basic ad copy and thus set up the landing page for the products and services. With the initial budget of $15000, one can divide them between the different tablet brands. Every single brand would be attaining a budget of near about $3000 basically for their ads. $5000 would move on to the US campaign while the remaining $5000 can be utilized for UK campaigns. The remaining budget would be used for other purposes. A bidding price has also been set for the suggested setting. Though this cannot be considered as the best practice, feedback is needed from the results before deciding regarding the bidding strategy. The figure demonstrated below helps in comprehending the scores attained, the number of visits, the lead rate, conversions and the rate of conversion (Krpic & et. al., 2016).

Simbound Website Management

In the context of simbound, it is generally noted that the students administer the landing pages so that they can easily raise the degree of conversions. A landing page can be considered as the first page that the potential customer is driven into once they click the ad. Hence, it is noted that the landing page is the most significant part of the online marketing campaign. There are different steps that we followed to develop the first landing page. After having logged into the account, we were supposed to go into Website Management. After that, we were supposed to click into the Create New Landing button. According to the type of visitor being targeted, we were easily capable of selecting between the content elements that need to be incorporated into the new landing page (Marketo, 2019).

It can be stated that the companies might stick to safe choices. However, it might fail to miss profitable opportunities. For example, while investing in the Lenovo tablet campaign, it was noted that it was a small brand thereby possessing a small profit margin when compared to bigger brands such as Apple or Android. Nonetheless, it has been identified that the rate of conversion might be quite high, and no one might be following them as well. When the companies would invest some budget into it, it would help them pay off a bigger amount. In the figure below, it can be observed that Lenovo has outperformed every single ad.

Experiences from Simbound Simulation From the Viewpoint of the Student

Taking into account the difficulties along with the changes in the marketing networks in the present times, if an inexperienced user makes use of such types of services, he might find it quite tough to attain a starting point and would also need to risk huge money in online marketing campaigns that are not administered properly. When split into different rounds with distinct goals as well as rewards, Simbound comprises of involvement of the student for attainment of the feedback from the work performed by them such as deciding on the group, suggestions as well as corrections that the professor makes, feedback offered by other team members at the end of each round. In the context of an agile environment, each iteration of the game tends to offer the users with the scope to update and manage the campaigns. We attained different options such as website management and analytics, search engine marketing, email marketing and social media marketing. Search engine marketing can be considered as the most complex component and most utilized element. Search Engine marketing section is the domain where we introduced to certain SEM specific terms such as clicks, CPC, the association between them and how they contribute to the success of the campaign (Simbound, 2019).

Conclusion

It can be revealed that the website developer needs to be conscious of different SEO methods that help in attaining a content-rich website that is placed over the top-ranked result pages of the search engine. When the comparison study is made between SEM and SEO, it helps in comprehending the marketing as well as the technical characteristics of the website in digital marketing. Keyword analysis helps in comprehending the fact that it has a major role in SEO methods. The crawled texts or links; keyword density can be administered with the help of the advanced SEO tools. It can as well offer SEO report regularly as needed by the company that assists in improving the traffic of the particular website and also increase the total sales of the products and services.

Simbound has led to a complex system permitting the user to learn to administer online marketing campaigns. It tends to be permanently updated with the updated tools that are present in most of the SEM platforms. The risk involved in this particular area has been linked with the capability of the user to comprehend the methods behind visitors' behaviour for making proper decisions and planning. The future graduates of marketing can easily make use of the simulation game for improving understanding linked with digital marketing skills, cost-benefit analysis, audience targeting and so on.

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References

Brennan, R., Willetts, R. & Vos, L. 2008. “Student experiences of the use of a marketing simulation game”, London: Middlesex University.

Gupta, S., Agrawal, N. & Gupta, S., 2016. “A Review on Search Engine Optimization: Basics”, International Journal of Hybrid Information Technology, Vol. 9, Issue 5.

Mahboubian, M., 2010. “Educational aspects of business simulation software”, Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences Vol. 2, pp. 5403–5407.

Pagani, M. & Otto, P., 2013. “Integrating strategic thinking and simulation in marketing strategy: Seeing the whole system”, Journal of Business Research, Volume 66, Issue 9, September, pp. 1568-1575.

Smith, S., 2004. Google vs. Yahoo!: Battling for the search marketing kingdom. Media, Vol.5, No. (4), pp. 24-28.

Washington, A., 2007. “Computer-Based Simulation Research”, International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies, SAGE Publications.